Pinball Duel

Song of the Week

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I had uncovered a trove of new music to feature here. Well, this week I’m zigging instead of zagging and going with the just-released NEW SINGLE from Pulp, called Spike Island. Despite being one of the premier Britpop bands of the 1990s, we have not heard new music from them since the 2001 release, We Love Life.

I find Spike Island a joy to listen to and it feels right at home with the rest of their catalogue.

More interestingly, however, is that the music video, directed by frontman Jarvis Cocker, is entirely AI-generated. In this case, the point is a sardonic one as Cocker fed an AI app photos from the album art of their 1995 release, Different Class, and uses the output to skewer the artistic potential of the rising technology. But weirdly, even while in the act of pointedly showing how soulless and offensive AI art can be (at least to those with taste), he also manages to create a pretty compelling piece of art on its own merits. And if art is simply an expression of creativity and imagination meant to convey an idea or elicit an emotional reaction, does it matter what tools were used to arrive there?

It gets thorny when you think deeply about the ethics of it, but it’s a trend that’s here to stay. In the last year alone, I’ve clocked at least 4 major music videos that are entirely AI-generated. Some are more effective than others. Like Pulp, Washed Out leans into the AI aesthetic, playing to the strengths of the generated visuals (a dream-like etherealness) to create something new and additive. Others, like Stereolab and Wu-Tang’s latest releases, work to conceal their AI provenance to varying degrees, and as a result, become less compelling as pieces of art, albeit decidedly cheaper to produce than using traditional filmmaking methods.

Commercial creative work is rife with tradeoffs.

Still, seeing these applications of AI within legitimate artistic work has been eye-opening. I’ve always approached AI as a tool in the toolbox, but in most cases, the tool hasn’t been the best one for the job. As the tools become more practical, however, I think I’m coming around to a different view, one expressed by Wu-Tang’s RZA in a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone.

“AI is a powerful thing, and it should be just another tool for us. It should be just like the ASR, the MPC, Pro Tools, or Ableton — another tool used to get musical creative ideas expressed, captured, and then make the best song that we can that make people dance, laugh, become inspired or introspective. But if it becomes something that makes the song for you, I think there’s a danger in that. And I think the danger in it is not immediate, but in the long term, that natural human quality of inspiration that we can’t actually define [may lessen]. I don’t think computers have reached the level of definition of that.”

It’s the combination of human plus AI instead of AI alone that I think works best.

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Pinball News of the Week

Dueling Releases: Dune vs. King Kong

Since we didn’t have a newsletter last week, I’m gonna throw the links for our launch articles for both Dune and King Kong here. Most of you probably know all this info already, though.

What I’d like to bring more attention to, however, are our reviews of the two games since I was able to get extensive time on both. First, a review of Dune, then a review of King Kong.

The tldr of it is that I enjoyed both games quite a lot.

For my tastes, however, the clear winner was Dune. That provided one of those rare experiences that kept me thinking about it long after I was done playing. More in line with a good film than a pinball machine.

The way it integrates with the world and aesthetic sensibilities of the films is just unlike anything else I’ve experienced in pinball. I’m itching to get more plays on it, and if I had to make a purchase today, Dune would be my choice.

Photo Essay: The People Who Make Your Pinball Machines

Exploring a bit of a new format with this piece, a photo essay that compiles a few of my favorite street-style candid shots of the line workers of Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, and Barrels of Fun Pinball after several trips out to all three over the last year.

Pintastic New England Highlights

Just before trips to Houston and Chicago, I had the privilege of attending my hometown show, Pintastic New England. For those who haven’t been, it’s more of a regional offering compared to larger shows like TPF and Pinball Expo, but I’ve long said that it punches above its weight class. It’s intimate, community-focused, and easy to navigate. You almost always have access to the latest games, a selection of homebrews, an extensive seminar schedule, plenty of tournaments, and a whole lot of free-play games. They’ve become increasingly creator-friendly over the years as well, and several of your favorites like TWIPY winner Jason Knapp and Don’s Pinball Podcast were found roaming the halls.

This year, I mostly attended for networking (it’s also a great show for that) and to get some time on Multimorphic’s Portal and Spooky’s Evil Dead. Note, due to lines and time constraints, I only got a couple of games on each, but sometimes that’s enough to tell if it passes the sniff test or not.

Portal Quick Take

Pinball fans have good reason to be excited for Multimorphic’s Portal. I found the gameplay to be more interesting and compelling than what I had experienced with their last release, The Princess Bride. Whereas that layout felt linear and dull, Portal feels way more exciting thanks to its varied shot geometry and mechanical action. I do think the Extended Game Kit makes a big difference here, as extending the action below the upper third of the playfield makes it feel more like a traditional pinball experience.

Evil Dead Quick Take  

There’s a lot to digest on Spooky’s Evil Dead, so I won’t pretend I understand all the nuances given the number of plays I had, but I can see why people are so excited by the game. It’s fun to shoot and packed with detailed theme integration. It also seems to build on some of the improvements to shot geometry and flow that were made in the TCM/Loony Tunes releases. My one knock is that the game was down for a good portion of the time I was there.

Checking in On Recent Domain Registrations

Since writing about domain registrations in pinball in the last edition of TWIP, here’s the list of new interesting domains that have been registered. What do we think the odds are of some of these getting produced? My money is on Secret Pinball.

• warhammerpinball.com

• snooppinball.com

• daftpunkpinball.com

• cyberpunkpinball.com

• 420pinball.com

• ufcpinball.com

• battlefieldpinball.com

• witcherpinball.com

• spaceinvaderspinball.com

• nbapinball.com

• dragonballpinball.com

• gtapinball.com

• onepiecepinball.com

• porschepinball.com

• michaeljacksonpinball.com

• galagapinball.com

• pacmanpinball.com

• secretpinball.com

• walkingdeadpinball.com

• squidgamespinball.com

• callofdutypinball.com

• donkeykongpinball.com

• finalfantasypinball.com

• punchoutpinball.com

• ducktalespinball.com

• lordoftheringspinball.com

• legopinball.com

• halopinball.com

• stepbrotherspinball.com

• itpinball.com

• matrixpinball.com

• tronpinball.com

• voltronpinball.com

• thegooniespinball.com

• eminempinball.com

• fastandthefuriouspinball.com

• hemanpinball.com

• diehardpinball.com

• gijoepinball.com

• beaviesandbuttheadpinball.com

• mickeymousepinball.com

• motorheadpinball.com

• rockypinball.com

• spidermanpinball.com

• thefifthelementpinball.com

• thesimpsonspinball.com

Pinball Map Location of the Week

Ryan and Scott from Pinball Map run a regular series that highlights one new or interesting pinball location each week. This week, Ryan writes about Scrappleland.

Scrappleland opened up in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn in March, and right now has 30 pinball machines. They have some rare or lesser-seen (especially in NYC) pins - such as The Big Lebowski - and have been generating quite the buzz. Normally in this column I would just make a bunch of wild guesses about the place, but today is abnormal and so I directly asked the owners, Alison Bisset and Peter Rose, a series of questions.

Scrappleland is named after a dog and not a food that I've never heard of until now, right? Do you serve scrapple the food? Is Scrapple the dog there?

Scrappleland is named after a beautiful chocolate lab, Scrapple. Scrapple has been known to stop by on occasion.

Are you brewing anything in that vat?

The brew equipment has been decommissioned and is available for sale!

Did you make the decorative water tower in the rooftop garden?

The Water Tower is by Brooklyn-based artist Tom Fruin and was created specifically for Greenpoint. His water towers can be seen all over the country.

How is ScrappleLeague going? Are you running it?

ScrappleLeague is going very well. We have well over 40 players each week. Greg Poverelli runs the league with assistance from several others.

Has any visitor ever said they discovered the place from Pinball Map?

Several people stopped by saying they saw us pop up on Pinball Map.

What are you excited about?

We have a lot of plans for this first year being open and are excited about each new phase. Our food program will be starting towards the end of the month. Once the brew equipment is gone we are going to expand our pinball collection to the back area and include a lot more seats.

Is this the first business that you have been an owner of?

This is Ali’s first business. Her business partner, Peter, owns Sunshine Laundromat.

Do you do the pinball tech work?

Peter maintains all the machines himself. 

How long is your commute?

Ali’s commute ranges from 25 minutes by bike or 40 minutes by train. Peter’s commute by car is about 50 minutes. 

Is there bike parking nearby?

There is a bike rack right out front of Scrappleland and a CitiBike rack on the corner. 

Are you hiring?

We are always accepting applications from qualified individuals.

Scrappleland
1150 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
(no website or social media as far as I can tell, so check out this walkthrough video instead)

Links of the Week

• Triple Drain Pinball Podcast recorded a whopping 3+ hours of interviews while at Stern for the King Kong launch, which begs the question: did they play the game?

• Stern’s Jeremy Packer was promoted to Studio Art Director - congrats!

• Enzo talked Dune with David Van Es on Gonzo’s Pinball Flipperama 

• DPX is tweaking Alice delivery plans alongside recent changes to US tariff policy

• Speaking of tariffs, this documentary-length YouTube video from Gamer’s Nexus about the impact of tariffs on the computer industry is making the rounds

• Did you think we were done with tariff talk? Hah! The AAMA is hosting a free webinar at 11am CT (today) discussing the impact of tariffs on the industry.

• Jamie Burchell launched The Pinball Roundtable podcast featuring Retro Ralph and Cale from Electric Bat

• LoserKid chatted with Brian Savage and David Van Es plus Keith Elwin (in a different episode of course)

• Nudgecast chatted with Bug of Spooky Pinball

Poll of the Week

Last Week’s Poll Results

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